Love Conquers All? ~ Sometimes
My rule of thumb concerning presentation format. If you have a choice between widescreen and full screen, always purchase the widescreen. However, if the film is only available in full screen and it's one you really want, you buy the full screen and put up with it until a widescreen version comes out to replace it. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow. With that said I'll comment on the movie.
Being the movie buff that I am, I'm embarrassed to admit that I had never heard of 'Ashanti' until I puchased it recently. The selling factor for me was the inclusion of Beverly Johnson in the cast. Upon my initial viewing I was delightfully surprised to discover that this is actually an extremely good and timely film. The existence of a modern day slave traders and the ever rising numbers of unaccounted for missing persons has received alot of media coverage in the U.S.A. this past year. It's a harsh reality, but it's the truth nonetheless, slavery continues to flourish in the...
Not quite Michael Caine's worst
It's strange that a man with the likes of Jaws - The Revenge, The Jigsaw Man, Blue Ice, The Holcroft Covenant, On Deadly Ground and Bullseye, not to mention two Harry Alan Towers movies on his resume should dismiss Ashanti as his worst picture, because Michael Caine's done a LOT shoddier (check out Geoffrey Reeve's strikingly inept Shadow Run if you want to see just how much shoddier). Not that it's particularly good, but even though it comes from the late Richard Fleischer's I'll-do-anything days and features cameos from actors out to top-up their pension funds (Rex Harrison) or who just happened to be in Kenya anyway (William Holden), this somewhat pedestrian modern-day slavery picture that sees Caine's WHO Doctor (insert pun here) tracking down his kidnapped wife (model-turned-very-bad-actress Beverly Johnson) before comical slave-trader Peter Ustinov can sell her to Harvard-educated smoothie prince ("Would you like a cucumber sandwich?") is at least watchable in a wallpaper kind...
Great Acting, Great Story!
Michael Caine and Peter Ustinov are great in this intriguing film that is full of beautiful scenery and great adventure. As Michael Caine's character searches for his wife who was kidnapped by slave traders, Peter Ustinov's character is busy making it difficult. The story is relevant to this day as slave trade continues throughout the world. There is some insight into how these slave trading groups work and renders the need to this day for more international attention to the problem. A great movie!
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